Chapter 14

This is how Rafael's sparring life in South Africa began, and they usually train in the same way as the first team every day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with strength training in the gym in the morning and on-ball training and tactical training in the afternoon, although the time and intensity of their training are a little easier than those of the first team.

Rafael's body is still fruitful under his hard workout, and he can already see some smooth muscles, although he still looks very thin in the eyes of the coach, but he is not afraid of confrontation with internal strength, but the body is the capital of life, he still needs to continue to work hard, and strengthen endurance training.

So often after the morning strength training, he will ask head coach Batista for additional training. Batista frowned and disagreed: "Being in a hurry is not good for physical development, and the training I arranged for you is the most scientific." ”

Rafael smiled sincerely: "I know the coach, but I was used to it when I was in the club, do you think I will practice for one day and check the next day?"

Batista saw that his attitude was resolute and that the extra training was also a positive attitude, so he had to reluctantly agree, but he paid attention to Raphael's extra training project, and was surprised to find that the intensity of his extra training was not small, plus normal training, the amount of training in a day was no less than that of the first team.

But how can he compare with those adults, he is only 16 years old, Batista is very optimistic about this sudden talent of the new star Rafael, he has watched his two youth team games, he is impressed by his aura and talent on the field, otherwise he would not have thought of him in the first place when the striker in the team was injured and absent, and recruited him into the team. Batista was worried and didn't wait for the next day, and took him directly to the medical examination, but the results of the examination showed that Raphael was healthy, training within the tolerance of his body, and did not cause him any damage.

After that, Batista no longer refused his training, but kept telling him to "do what he can".

The River Plate Academy coaches seem to have said this to him a lot. However, Raphael is very measured, he has internal strength, and he knows the limits of his body very well, not to mention that Raphael also comes from the more developed medical science of Daming. Because of the emphasis on inheritance, the level of traditional Chinese medicine in the Ming Dynasty is very high, coupled with the historical development of football for hundreds of years, under the combination of Chinese and Western, how to correctly stimulate the potential of the human body is not comparable in this life. Raphael borrowed the experience of the previous life to develop a training plan for himself, ensuring that he could improve his physical quality quickly and without harm.

"Raphael, why do you look unhappy today?" asked the teenager who was exercising next to him while pressing his leg on the training ground.

"No, I don't. Raphael shook his head in denial.

"It's not good to lie, good boy. Pezzella grinned.

Raphael gave him a roll of his eyes: "You are two years older than me, not twenty years old, don't look so much like my father." ”

"Three years old, to be exact. Pezzella didn't care, and then teased, "It can't be that you miss your girlfriend, right?"

Rodriguez had just run past when he heard their conversation interject: "If you want to call South Africa, Maradona can't help it, you know." "Squeezing his eyebrows and making eyes.

Pezzella then let out a lewd laugh that could only be understood: "I will avoid it in due course." ”

On the question of whether players should abstain from sex at the World Cup, Argentina is very human compared to many other national teams that are either strict or ruthless, that is, they are not abstaining from sex during the World Cup, and their wives and girlfriends are even free to go in and out of the players' residences. When Maradona won the World Cup with the team in 1986, then coach Bilardo did just that, and now Maradona is the manager, and he also believes that this move can help the team achieve good results. Brazil, also a South American country, is also open, with a rule that smoking and alcohol are prohibited during the World Cup, and players can live with their wives and girlfriends, with no strict restrictions. Brazil coach Dunga's theory is, "We respect the individuality of each player, it's better than them going out and fooling around!"

Compared with the excitement of his teammates, Rafael is embarrassed to pour cold water on them, they are just a youth team, as long as it is not a big scandal and going out to get together with his girlfriend at night or something, no one pays attention at all...... So whether this provision is meaningless to them at all, and most importantly......

Raphael was about to speak, when something suddenly smashed on his back, and the first touch came to his brain response center, which was football! His muscles moved reflexively, and the ball that had just been smashed like a cannonball was docile, and he turned around, and the ball that was lifted up just fell, and when he swept away, he saw a person raise his hand to signal, and he raised his foot and swung it, and the ball was kicked out by him.

The football drew a beautiful white arc in the sky, and Raphael calmly took their words: "Let me find a girlfriend first, and then we will discuss this topic, okay?"

Pezzella exclaimed: "Beautiful!"

The corners of Raphael's mouth twitched: "It's okay not to love, but please don't hurt." ”

Rodriguez glared at him and patted him, "Hey, you're blind, aren't you?"

Raphael realized that they weren't talking about the same topic: "Huh?" he looked at them.

Messi watched the ball fly towards him accurately, he lightly cushioned the instep of his right foot, and the ball stopped at his feet beautifully, this ball is really comfortable, if he receives such a pass in the game, he can shoot directly without unnecessary movements.

He was amazed in his heart, and raised his hand to give the little player a thumbs up, but found that the other party had turned around, and he awkwardly withdrew his hand and touched his nose in disguise.

Mascherano, who was defending him, patted him lightly: "That little guy has an amazing sense of the ball, he stops the ball with his back and turns around with a long pass, it's incredible!"

But the other party's actions are as natural as drinking water, even if it is Leo, it may not be able to do this, is it a coincidence?

It's a pity that Messi was facing away from the football before, and didn't see the moment when Rafael stopped the ball, he just beckoned the opponent to return the ball to him, thinking that the other party would run over or throw the ball over, who knew that he played such a perfect pass, but the other party seemed to be very unimpressed.

He was stunned as he stepped on the ball, and the man seemed to turn around at the reminder of someone else, and smiled in their direction.

Obviously dozens of meters apart, Messi didn't know why his eyesight was so good, he clearly saw that the overly good-looking and pure face with a sweet smile, it was easy to resonate, he couldn't help but laugh, the two small dimples were faint, he stretched out his hand again to give each other an encouragement, Maradona's big voice sounded again: "Hey! you two!

A pop hit him on the top of the head, the outstretched hand quickly covered his head, and when he turned around, Maradona's fat face was behind him, and he snorted and laughed embarrassedly.

"What's so beautiful, there's a beautiful woman over there?!" Obviously, Maradona didn't see that scene, in the face of his favorite general, he still didn't scold loudly, and jokingly kicked their ass, "Why don't you hurry up and get in place!"

Messi nimbly dodged and ran towards his position with a smile, but couldn't help but turn back halfway, the boy had long since stopped looking at this side and chatted with his friends again. He felt a little lost in his heart, probably because he didn't send out the encouragement twice.

"It's just basics, what's there to say. Rafael was puzzled by the two people's questions, "Stopping the ball is a basic skill, passing the ball is also a basic skill, don't tell me that you can't." ”

So what's so good about this and what's there to care about?

Pezzella and Rodriguez looked at each other and couldn't help but roll their eyes. Yes, yes, stopping the ball and passing the ball are basic skills, but it is very rare to be able to do what you are so smooth, and it is very rare, right?!And long passes are generally not the best at midfield and backfield players, generally forwards are a little bit bright This skill, short passes are good is very good, you take long passes as the basic skills of shooters, and the midfielder cries and faints in the toilet!

Seeing the young man's inexplicable expression on his vexatious face, they hated it so much that they only wished that they had a camera in their hands, traveled to the past, recorded the scene just now and uploaded it to the Internet, so that others could comment on it together and see who was making trouble......

Therefore, the invisible pretense is the most hated!

Rafael was indeed in a low mood, because he felt that this trip to South Africa was a bit of a loss, he originally thought that the sparring partner was training with everyone, but later found that he thought too much about it, it was just a literal meaning, it was people practicing, and they were just accompanied.

Because the U20 youth team is here to sparring and the number of people can't even make up enough for two teams of 11 to play a standard intra-team match, his only hope is to have a warm-up match with the first team, but unfortunately three days later, he still did not wait for this kind of game.

Maradona, mainly as the coach, did not arrange this, whether it was a warm-up match with their youth team or other national teams. Rafael was simply disappointed by the lack of a game, but Maradona's preparation arrangements caused dissatisfaction among many people in China, and the Argentine media even criticized Maradona for only knowing how to train in a closed manner, which could not test the players' training status, let alone stimulate their competitive state.

'I just want the players to be healthy now, a lot of them are physically and mentally exhausted when they arrive in the national team, some have played 50 or 60 games at club level, so it's a good time to rest. Maradona explained to reporters about this. Although many strong teams have arranged three or four warm-up games before the start of the World Cup, he believes that reducing the game, that is, reducing the chance of injury to the players, he is preparing the preparation plan with personal experience, the 1986 World Cup, when it was fighting in the Mexican plateau, coach Bilardo gave the players to relax before the game, this time it is also a plateau, Maradona also hopes that the disciples can relax and face the game in a better state.

Either way, Rafael, as a member of the youth team, can only obey and cooperate. In addition to completing the training arranged by the coach, their current contact with the first team is ...... Be a qualified caddie and cheerleader.

For example, when there are multiple shooters who have to practice shooting, and there are not enough people in the team, it is time for them to come on the field and help pick up the ball. Or when the first-team players are thirsty and sweaty, they help deliver water and towels, or when Maradona takes the players to play "games" together, he acts as a spectator and cheerleaders......

Even if there is a player who needs the cooperation of individual young players in training, it will not be his turn for the time being......

The sparring career is really more boring than he imagined.